


A Soft Afternoon

by oper_1895



Series: Threads [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bondage, Established Relationship, Hair Pulling, Hair bondage, Light BDSM, M/M, Non-Sexual Kink, Subspace, minimal negotiation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-07-03
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:06:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25056682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oper_1895/pseuds/oper_1895
Summary: Steve, Bucky, some rope, a soft afternoon, and a perfect moment.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Series: Threads [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1810438
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38





	A Soft Afternoon

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to sywitxher for beta reading!
> 
> The overall tone is soft and positive however there are some things that might read as sketchy consent. See End Notes for more details.

Bucky occasionally considered cutting his hair. It wasn’t practical, it was a tempting (if ill-advised) target in close combat, and there was that time with the goo, and the time with the other... fluids. 

But then there were evenings like this, where he was sitting on the floor leaning against Steve and the couch and Steve was playing with his hair and the idea seemed less urgent. 

Steve’s movements had slowly evolved and Bucky could tell he was planning something.  
“Hey Buck, can I try something?” 

Ahh, there it was. Bucky let his head fall back to look up at Steve, “Well, that depends on how much effort it requires on my part.”

“Lazy,” Steve playfully pushed Bucky’s head away and levered himself from the couch. “Just stay here. I’ll be right back.”

It wasn’t long before Steve came back into the room waving a bundle of pale jute rope. “I have an idea with this and your head.” 

Bucky grinned. He had no patience for the tying but Steve had taken to the artistic and technical challenges with vigor. The natural fibers of the rope, delicate when compared to super soldier strength, would only hold Bucky as long as he allowed it, but he frequently found he was very willing to allow it. “Done. Where do you want me.” 

“There’s fine.” Steve said. 

Steve settled back onto the couch behind Bucky, bracketing him with warm thighs. Bucky let his eyes drift shut as Steve carefully gathered Bucky’s hair into a bun at the back of his head, securing it with an elastic.

“I thought this was rope time?” Bucky murmured. 

“Shh, I’m getting to it.”

Steve looped the rope around the bun and draped the rope over the top of Bucky’s head. Bucky felt the gentle pressure as Steve carefully aligned knots along his skull, his forehead, between his eyes, under his nose. The rope split under his chin, drawing back to the base of his skull and-

“Nope”. Bucky cut in quickly. His heart rate spiked as soon as he felt the pressure under his jawbone. That was unexpectedly distressing, but before he could work himself anywhere, Steve let go. It slid off the top of Bucky’s head and caught on an ear. The awkward incongruity derailed his spiral before it could even begin. He shook his head to dislodge the rope, and snorted a laugh as he realized what he’d done. Hands. He had hands. Why didn’t he think to grab it?

“Okay? Are you okay?” Steve ran careful hands over his face, warm skin erasing the previous sensations. 

“Yeah.” Bucky gestured vaguely around his chin. “Too much like the mask, I guess.”

“Do you want to stop? I was just messing around, if it doesn’t work it doesn’t work.”

“Nah, it was fine up until that point. You can keep trying if you can work around that.”

“If I skip the jaw?”

“Sure,” Bucky breathed in the scent of Steve’s skin, planted a kiss on his palm. “Try it.” 

“Okay.” He could feel the tugs of Steve untying some of the knots and let the sensation sooth him. Steve laid the rope again, this time splitting the rope just under the eyes, mimicking the lines of Steve’s helmet. Much better. 

Bucky relaxed as Steve drew the ends of the rope back to the back of his head and did … something. Bucky couldn’t quite track what happened, but he could guess.The rope with evenly spaced knots was aligned across the top of his skull, each section in between the knots could be opened up into a diamond. As Steve tightened it all down, Bucky could feel the extra pressures of each knot and twist digging into his skull. 

Steve tied off the head harness back at Bucky’s bun, the leftover length of the rope dangling down Bucky’s back. This was nice. The bun Steve had started with was a good anchor for the whole harness, giving a stable base to help keep the structure from feeling like it could just slide off if he moved wrong. He supposed it wouldn’t matter as much if it went under his chin, but this half-mask felt nice. 

Steve hummed, sounding pleased with the result and gave an experimental tug on the remaining rope. It was Bucky’s turn to moan happily as he felt the pull in his hair. Then Steve started pulling a bit harder, and his hair pulled, but then the harness started to pick up the weight and tightened around his head and the world... went…. soft…... 

“How’s that feel?” Steve was leaning forward, his voice was gentle at Bucky’s shoulder. Bucky struggled to get words past the pleasant haze in his brain and managed a pleased whine, bumping his head against Steve’s.

“That good, eh?”

“Yeah”, Bucky realized his eyes had closed and he drooped against Steve’s knee. Steve pulled on the rope again, tilting Bucky’s head back slightly and Bucky felt every drop of tension drain out of his body. He dragged his eyes open to make eye contact. 

“You wanna stay here a bit?”

“Yes, please.”

“Alright sweetheart. Up on your knees and give me your hands.”

Reminded that the rest of his body still existed, Bucky shuffled carefully up onto his knees, sitting back on his heels as he folded his arms behind his back. Steve caught his wrists up in loops of the trailing rope, pulling his hands up high in his back, connecting them directly to the head harness. Bucky’s metal arm was a firm weight dragging against his head. He straightened his neck slightly and felt the strain in his right shoulder as it stretched up higher in his back. The rope was short enough there was always a pull somewhere. Bucky let his arms hang gently, taking a moment to breathe and explore the sensations. 

“Yeah, you like that don’t you?” Steve pushed his hands down, pulling his neck back at an awkward angle, increasing the pressures on his hair and on his head. 

Bucky moaned.

“Look at you.” Steve whispered against Bucky’s face, using his other hand to trace the lines of rope across Bucky’s skull, pressing gently against each little point of pressure. Bucky felt slack and loose and drunk with it. He turned his head to try and catch Steve in a kiss, but Steve’s grip on the rope held him back, just out of reach. Steve’s eyes crinkled in amusement at Bucky’s playfully betrayed pout. 

“I think, if you really wanted a kiss, you’d be willing to put in a bit of effort.” Steve said, just out of reach, but close enough that Bucky could feel his breath on his skin. 

Bucky leaned forward, unbalancing enough to feel the control and care of Steve’s hand on the rope, the strain in his neck and shoulders, the pull and pressure across his scalp, and then the sweet warmth of Steve’s lips, and it was perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes on Consent: This is an established relationship and they do some things that might read as sketchy consent: there is minimal advance negotiation and they re-negotiate mid-scene after one person is already spacey. However they’re working within the existing consent frameworks of their relationship, the tone is positive, the overall play is pretty mild, and they’re both capable of speaking up if something isn’t feeling right.
> 
> There is one brief moment where things go a little bad due to an unexpected association, but it’s quickly remedied, and play continues positively.


End file.
